A picture of a cracked airplane window coming from a resident of Perth is resonating with Australians who’ve had recent bad experiences.
An Australian man flying home from Canberra to Perth shared a photo from his Qantas flight that sums up the shakey condition of airlines in Australia. Richard Edinger posted a picture of a cracked window on his flight, to go along with previous problems with his flight such as delays, seat changes, and a lack of food on the flight. Although there was still food available for him on the flight, just not the meal he wanted. He would go on to call the meal he received “rabbit food.”
“I knew it was totally safe still but it just really topped off the whole situation,” he said of the cracked window.
A Qantas spokeswoman confirmed it didn’t impact the structure of the aircraft, saying that the crack was in the Perspex, which is the protective layer between the cabin and the actual window. The layer was shattered and taped together with sticky tape.
“It is superficial damage to a Perspex scratch plate that covers the windows,” she said.
Despite this, Edinger says he’s “not a Qantas critic”.
“I think (CEO Alan Joyce) gets far too much uninformed criticism,” he said.
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“Remember, before the pandemic, he had turned the airline around,” Edinger claimed.
Despite Edinger’s claims the current state of Qantas, and the airline industry as a whole, comes down to mismanagement at the highest level and maximizing profits over workplace conditions.
This situation is one that has been in the making over the last several years. Many Australian-based airlines, and airlines in other countries, including Qantas, performed mass layoffs during the pandemic to minimize the loss of profits. Flights began picking up again in 2022 but the airlines have not followed suit in restaffing their workforce despite earlier claims that layoffs would be temporary.
Workplace conditions are worsening for the workers who remained after the mass layoffs as flights continue to increase. These conditions include pay disputes and an understaffed workplace, leading many workers to take action in nations all across the world, including Australia. To blame the workers who have endured until now, instead of the corporate mismanagement, would be like blaming firefighters who couldn’t save a burning building instead of the arson who started the fire.
Airlines such as Qantas and its CEO Alan Joyce will do whatever they can to subtly shift the blame away from themselves and onto others, with statements such as, “these flight delays and cancellations are not the kind of performance that we were delivering pre-COVID and we know they are not at the level that our customers expect,” coming from Qantas spokespersons. This shifts the blame onto the performance of others and away from the corporate greed and mismanagement displayed by upper management.
Qantas has been known for bringing in strikebreakers or “scabs” in the past to “complement their workforce.” This makes statements such as the ones below especially insidious due to their focus on maximizing performance rather than improving the workplace conditions of the existing employees and a commitment to long-term and stable employment.
“Everyone at Qantas and Jetstar is focused on turning this performance around,” the spokesperson said.
